Facets of the Frozen Lake: A Warrior Cats Saga
by Sorenne
Summary: Newleaf comes late. The Clan lies in danger's path, with a new leader barely a warrior and nervous of her position, two hungry rival Clans to compete with- and an aging medicine cat who must find the subject of a prophecy or leave his Clan to disaster...
1. Prologue

Melting snow numbed the paws of the patrol, which sank into the ground with each step. Though newleaf was upon them, a weak, watery leafbare sun glinted overhead, and the season's first buds had yet to sprout. The strong, lithe warriors kept up a steady pace, while the Clan's newest apprentice, on her first-ever outing, trailed slightly behind- but they all straggled behind the old, grizzled medicine cat, whose determined gaze was betrayed by his stumbling, weary gait. Still, he plowed on without a moment's rest.

A gray warrior halted. "Graymane, we'll be late for Ebonypaw's warrior ceremony if we don't head back soon."

The massive tom turned on the warrior, gold eyes blazing, and the young cat flinched.

"Then you can all head back. I told Lotusstar myself, I don't need an escort in our own territory!" he snapped.

Both cats bristled; a black tom wove between the two before the warrior could retort. "Graymane has his reasons, Ashwhisker." his gaze- one eye sliced through by a thin white scar, but the other amber- fell to his apprentice. "Brindlepaw," he ordered. "Keep up- we're on patrol for now, so pay attention. I don't want to lose you in these woods.

"Incidentally," he mewed to Graymane, "Where are we headed?"

Graymane hesitated, eyes guarded and hawk-like. "Northern woods." he finally grunted without meeting Breezeheart's gaze, and turned to continue on his way.

"We'll _never_ make it back to camp in time." Ashwhisker whispered, but his companion shot him a warning glance. Graymane climbed the slope without waiting for them- with his long, thick fur and large build, it was easy to forget how ancient he was.

"Come on." he said bracingly. He especially looked forward to Ebonypaw's ceremony and didn't wish to miss it, but nor was he keen to desert the medicine cat. "The less we quarrel, the faster we get back." In an undertone, he murmured, "remember the meeting last quarter-moon. We don't leave him alone out here."

Ashwhisker's tail drooped; the two warriors followed, Brindlepaw dashing close behind.

All the cats had been shocked to hear Graymane's announcement. Without the traditional Clan call, he'd leapt upon the Highroot and begun to speak- yet all eyes were immediately upon him.

"_Cats of FrostClan… I have had a dream." he began._

_Of course Graymane was anxious, even desperate- the entire Clan was, with the death of their medicine cat prophesized and no apprentice to take his place. Lotusstar had seemed especially troubled- but of course, Graymane had been medicine cat since Cloudstar was leader. The young leader must have been terrified to lose his advice and support. She had sent a guard wherever the old tom went, until he'd growled at her so harshly she'd retreated to her den until sunhigh. Ashwhisker let out a sigh- if Graymane didn't find a sign or solution soon, the entire Clan would be in jeopardy. But what was he looking for?_

_Breezeheart caught his eye and, as if he knew what the younger warrior was thinking, began to speak._

_But an excited squeak cut him off, and the two whirled around to see Brindlepaw crouched on the ground, a dead leaf pinned beneath her._

"_Mousebrain!" Breezeheart meowed, batting her impishly on the nose. "You'll scare off all the prey from here to Sunpools."_

_The apprentice shot him her best withering glare, though her whiskers twitched in amusement. _

_Suddenly, there was another loud yowl, echoing past the trees. All three cats froze, exchanging a brief glance of panic before rushing to the top of the pine-clad hill as fast as their legs could carry them._

_Graymane stood beneath an old cedar, his pelt dappled with what dim light filtered through the branched overhead._

"_What is it?" Brindlepaw's eyes were as wide as full moons._

_The three paced around the medicine cat, who refused to move but continued to stare to the ground, where a strange pebble lay. It was clear as ice, the colour of tree sap, a perfect oval. Inside was trapped a tiny flower. Breezeheart prodded the stone with a forepaw- it was warm._

"_Back off!" Graymane hissed._

"_What is it?" Ashwhisker demanded. "Does it mean anything?"_

"_A sign… Let it be a sign."_

_Breezeheart noticed his apprentice trembling, and pressed his pelt to hers reassuringly. She was too bewildered to object._

"_It's like a little Moonstone…" she murmured, though she had not yet been to the mystical place where leaders and medicine cats shared tongues with their ancestors._

_Graymane lowered himself into a crouch, his eyes fixed on nothing, as if he were truly elsewhere. A shiver went through the fur of all three cats. Breezeheart felt the impulse to cry out as the medicine cat, closing his eyes, pressed his nose to the stone._

_Immediately he fell to the ground, writhing and shuddering. The stone seemed to glow slightly- or was it just their imagination, fed by horror and unease? None of the warriors moved, every muscle tensed and all thoughts of returning to camp forgotten. _

_Gradually, the old cat's spasms died down. He lay on the ground, breathing labored. No cat knew what to do- Ashwhisker started forward, but before he could help Graymane, the tom's eyes had opened. He rose shakily, not bothering to shake off the dust matting his pelt._

"_Graymane…" Brindlepaw's heart hammered in her chest. She unsheathed her claws and dug them into the ground._

"_Have you had a sign from StarClan?" Breezeheart said quietly._

_Graymane looked back to the stone. It had shone like a drop of liquid flame, blinding him to the forest and wrenching him into a vision. The flower at its core was a pale violet in colour, but even that was fading. Only the fierce light in the medicine cat's eyes shone on as evidence of what had just happened._

_A crow cawed out harshly; all jumped, but for Graymane. Slowly, as if his joints were bothering him, he turned to them. Brindlepaw's eyes widened at how old he looked just then._

"_The cat with the purple eyes…. That is who will take my place."_


	2. Chapter 1

"I want a strong patrol for the RainClan border." declared Lotus-star. "They've been too bold lately about where they catch their prey. Mudstripe, take Duskpelt and Breezeheart."

Breezeheart flicked his tail. "Can Brindlepaw come?"

Lotus-star nodded. "It'll be good experience for her. Renew the scent-markers along Sunpools- keep an eye out for any intruders."

Mudstripe gave her a dip of his head, and padded off to the warriors den. Lotus-star's ears twitched uncomfortably; after two moons of leadership, she still acted unaccustomed to the respect with which the senior warriors treated her.

Brindlepaw raised a cloud of dust as she fell heavily to her haunches, giving her chest a rapid grooming before they set off. Looking up at Breezeheart, her eyes were bright. "Do you think we'll find any RainClan warriors? Will there be a fight?" she breathed.

"Probably not." he told her. "Though we'll keep an eye out for any sort of danger- foxes, badgers, rogues…" the apprentice's eyes grew huge. "_Dogs_…."

A loud meow interrupted the young black warrior. "As if you wouldn't turn tail at the sight of a fox these days," Duskpelt said, cuffing him around the ear. "After what that one did to your eye."

"It was your idea to track it down in the first place!"

"My idea was to gather a full _patrol_." he purred. A dark gray tom with a torn ear and the same mischievous amber eyes as his brother, he had always been the more serious of the two.

"Are we getting a move on?" Mudstripe asked. "Don't worry," he meowed to an alarmed Brindlepaw. "Those two mousebrains are famous for getting into trouble. There won't be any danger for you unless you go looking for it like your idiot mentor."

"Yes, Mudstripe." she mewed, though her pale blue eyes glimmered excitedly. The senior warrior sighed.

"Come on, you three- at this rate the whole of RainClan will have made it into our dens!"

"Caught it!" Breezeheart crowed, his claws still buried in the fur of the squirrel he'd been chasing. Mudstripe shot him a look.

"And it'll be the last catch of the day, what with you scaring off everything from here to Mountain Roots."

Brindlepaw's whiskers twitched with amusement. She'd already caught a vole- her first-ever catch. Breezeheart had praised her lavishly for her quickness in leaping on the small, speedy creature, which had scurried right out of its den at a run.

"Stupid thing." she purred. "It didn't stand a chance."

Duskpelt sighed. "Honestly, Breezeheart, teach your apprentice some respect? We give thanks to StarClan for its life." he added to the young apprentice. "_And for the catch."_

"_We'll bury these here." Mudstripe decided. "It's well past dawn-we need to be getting back soon enough."_

"_Lotus-star'll be happier to see the fresh-kill pile filled." Breezeheart said, but he buried his squirrel and set off with the others._

_The early-morning frost was beginning to melt, and light filtered down on them from a clear, pale sky. The broadleaf forest in their territory was the first to come fully into newleaf- tender leaves shaded the ground, and the air smelled fresh, of prey and of growing things, for the first time in moons._

_The patrol headed south, skirting the meadow which bordered the sandy shore of the lake. The cats blinked sunlight out of their eyes as they reached the river marking their border with RainClan. The Sunpools glittered welcomingly- round, shallow dips in the stone filled with water almost always warmed by the sun, surrounded by flat, gray borders scattered around the area._

"_Great day for sunning." Duskpelt said wistfully._

"_Let's see how much prey you bring back, and then maybe you can return." meowed the FrostClan deputy._

_Across the shore, Silverrocks were bathed in golden light, acting as stepping stones across the river, which neither Clan would dare cross, or should, and continuing into Rainclan territory. There was the scent of other cats in the air, but it was stale, flimsy in comparison to the flavors of mist rolling off the river, and the already-lush plants bordering RainClan's side of it._

"_Patrol hasn't passed yet." Breezeheart mewed, hurrying forward to renew the markers. Brindlepaw only stood by and watch as the others did the same, and so it was she who first heard a quiet noise beneath the rushing of the current. "What's that?" Her ears pricked towards the sound._

"_Probably just a bird." Breezeheart responded, but Duskpelt halted suddenly, water lapping at his paws._

"_No, wait. I think I hear it too."_

_Mudstripe glanced back at the patrol, who immediately understood and fell silent, creeping forward as lightly as if hunting. The FrostClan deputy led the way around the river bend, then, sped up suddenly, his paws spraying pebbles down the slope to the shore._

"_Great StarClan," Duskpelt breathed. Mudstripe bent, and lifted something out of the water._

"_Is it alive?" Brindlepaw mewed anxiously._

"_I think so… Yes, it's breathing." _

_A small cat, hardly more than a kit, hung in his jaws. A female, she had a dark, tiger-striped pelt with different shades of brown and even dull gold, though slicked down with water and plastered to her frail body, which shook from cold. _

"_We need to get it back to camp." Duskpelt said, breaking the silence._

_He led the way back, casting glances over his shoulder at the young, half-dead cat._


End file.
